


Dancing in Cuba

by bluehappyking



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Agents of SHIELD, CAR TRIP, F/M, FitzSimmons - Freeform, Ragtag, Season 1, dancing in the moonlight, toploader
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-14
Updated: 2015-02-14
Packaged: 2018-03-12 20:01:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3353501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluehappyking/pseuds/bluehappyking
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not sure if this has been written in some form before, but I was looking at the clips from 1x21 Ragtag and Fitzsimmons go to track down the bus in a car. Their drive isn’t mentioned in the show so here’s how I think it might have played out. Starts and ends with the scenes from Rag-tag.</p><p>Quite a lot of foreshadowing for later, Fitzsimmons fluffy moments and cuteness, talks about HYDRA, S.H.I.E.L.D. , Ward and Tripp. And of course, this beautiful song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yBnIUX0QAE.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dancing in Cuba

“You sure you don’t want anything else?” Tripp asked Fitz after rumaging in his case. “How about one of these quarter walky-talkies?” Fitz looked over into his hand. “They have a built in homing beacon.” 

“Okay,” Fitz replied.

“I’ll keep one too.”

“Thanks,” Fitz smiled. Simmons smiled at the pair from behind after loading the D.W.A.R.V.E.S. into the green boot of an old car Coulson had ‘borrowed.’ At least they were getting along now. “I don’t want to be greedy, we’ve already got the D.W.A.R.V.E.S.” Trip laughed slightly at that. 

“No problem,” he closed the case. “Alright,” he held out his fist and Fitz looked at him curiously before placing his hand over it - he was more of a hand-shake kind of guy himself. The two exchanged a smile before Coulson came over to them to inform them of their missions. 

“Because we had to fly in low, we’ll have to search for our plane from the ground,” he informed them - May, Skye, Tripp and Fitzsimmons. The six of them now seemed like such a small team even though that’s what they were used to. Well, with Ward there instead. They were stood in a dark, abandoned hangar in Cuba. “Fitz, Simmons, you have the maps, do not engage under any circumstances. If you find the bus, call us and stand down or come back here and wait.” He sounded serious and the two understood his plan. He was protecting them from danger that they weren’t ready to face. 

“We’ll be careful,” Simmons said.

“Understood sir,” Fitz cut over her slightly and walked to put his final bag in the car. 

“Let’s do it,” Coulson exchanged a nod and the team split up. Fitz himself was looking forward to the time alone with Simmons, but the underlying reasoning behind their search was at the forefront of their minds.

Fitz instinctively got into the driver’s side and started up the old car which chugged as he did. He wasn’t sure what make it was but it was certainly vintage - Coulson liked that sort of thing. Simmons sat next to him, putting her seat belt on and smiled slightly before getting out the maps. For a team comfortable with technology to aid them, they were heading back to the dark ages. 

“I haven’t driven a car in a very long time,” Fitz looked around slightly in awe of the grey sedan car. “Especially in something like this. Look Simmons, it even has a cassette player.” 

“Does it have a tape in it?” she queried but it didn’t. “Oh, that’s a shame.” She turned around and waved slightly to the team as they pulled out in front and drove off to Havana Cuba. “It seems so primitive doesn’t it? Just searching on maps, the bus could be anywhere. How will we know where to find it?” 

“I guess we have to think like them. Where could they hide a dirty great plane in Cuba?”

“Ooh! I’ll check for airports,other than where we are now of course,” Simmons smiled as they pulled the car out of the hangar and drove along the open road. It was a bright day, just a shame it was a darker one for S.H.I.E.L.D.

The roads were quite clear and Fitz had his instructions from Simmons as to where they should head. However, Cuba was a big place - it would take some time and he was starting to get hungry.

“Did you bring any food?” Fitz asked and Simmons looked at him.

“Typical Fitz, thinking about his stomach,” she nudged him slightly. “I don’t know how we’re going to do it. There’s 5 whole other airports in the country, let alone smaller air-fields. Are we expected to drive around the whole day looking at every single one of them to see if we can spot the bus?”

“The cloaking was damaged though so at least it won’t be invisible, Simmons, you didn’t answer my question about the food,” Fitz moaned slightly and she laughed, rolling her eyes. 

“I told you leftover pizza is not a good breakfast,” she reached back and pulled out their ration bag. “Here.” She held over a chocolate bar in silver wrapping.

“It’s better than nothing I suppose,” Fitz took his hands off the wheel to open it which made Simmons squeak slightly, so he put his hands back on. “It’s okay, we’re going straight...”

“Leopold Fitz, just because you’re a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, doesn’t mean you can drive recklessly. What would happen if the police saw you?”

“They have much bigger things to deal with than a hungry driver, Simmons. Do you want me to pull over because if that’s the case I will...”

“Oh shush,” she said and took the bar from his hand. “Open your mouth.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Are you hungry or not?” she insisted and he looked over at her pretty face with a small smile on it and her hand with the opened bar in it. Fitz smirked slightly as she fed him the chocolate and he bit off a large piece. “Eyes on the road.”

“Reminds me of the old days, when you were handling those tissues and couldn’t touch anything. We had...what was it...” he clicked the fingers on his left hand. “Rolos wasn’t it?”

“Yes and you dropped them into the acid sample before I was ready to open my mouth and oh that fizzing...” 

“Your face was priceless,” he smiled and she laughed. “More please?”

“I’m not your slave,” she replied. “Hmm,” she said as Fitz finished the bar. “We may never get to be in a lab again. I hardly fancy testing samples in motels for the rest of my life.”

“Where else can we go?” Fitz asked and overtook another car. “I don’t think it’ll be like this all the time?”

“HYDRA is out there now,” Simmons told him, looking out the window to see if she could spot any nice scenery. “There’s no way we can go back to how it was.”

“But if we get Garrett and then Ward comes back...”

“Fitz! Ward is not coming back,” she looked at him more sternly. “He’s evil, he’s killed people, he captured Skye and he’s a traitor. Look at Eric Koenig. You can’t surely think he...”

“He’s a friend, Jemma. I...he can’t have made that all up. We were all together for months, we had fun, played cards and things and...well, he gave me advice. He saved you from the plane too, remember? Would he have done that if he was evil? He saved your life and he wouldn’t let us come to harm. On that mission we went to, he looked after me. He wouldn’t hurt us.”

She was silent for a moment. 

“I don’t know what’s in his head Fitz, but whatever it is, we can’t lose sight of what we’re meant to do. And there’s so many airports, we’ve not even been driving for an hour. I don’t even know if this piece of junk will last that long,” she started to play with her ponytail and Fitz glanced over at her. “How could it all end so suddenly? Just gone, like that. What were they planning? HYDRA? What is it they want to do after all this time?”

“I don’t know Jemma, I really don’t know,” Fitz said as his stomach rumbled again, making Simmons smile and get another chocolate bar to feed him - this time allowing herself some too. 

They drove for another hour at least looking around at the scenery of Cuba and spoke to the team, finally making a plan. Logically (which is how Fitzsimmons functioned), considering time and speed and the amount of fuel it used, the bus would have to be at one of the two nearest airports. Either at the one at Havana or Able Santa-maria. Havana was where the others were headed, so they could check there. It would take another 45 minutes or so to get to the latter. Maybe longer as Fitz was insisting they should stop to get more food on the way.

“I think you have an issue, you eat when you’re nervous,” Simmons diagnosed.

“Well of course I’m nervous, our lives are getting turned upside down and we don’t even know what’s happening to the rest of the world. How they’ve been affected by this hold drama. Turn the radio on, see if there’s anything on there.” 

“If it even works,” Jemma replied and looked at the old contraption, turning knobs with high frequencies of feedback. “I can’t pick up a signal.”

“What about that old radio station we used to listen to? The one that played all the British music.”

“Ooh I’d forgotten about that, good thinking Watson.”

“What is it about me that makes me a Watson?” Fitz muttered and Jemma flicked through and heard the end of a news-report. “Do they even know about Deathlock over there? It would really terrify my mum. She’s probably worried sick over the whole thing with S.H.I.E.L.D. I’ll make sure to call her as soon as we end this mission, to let her know I’m okay.”

“Oh, that’s right, I should talk to my mum and dad too,” Simmons sighed. “Our identities have been completely erased but I hope that...”

“And next we have a song from 2000, it’s bound to get you all dancing along. British rock band ‘Toploader with Dancing in the Moonlight.’

“FITZ!” Jemma almost screeched and grabbed his arm. “FITZ!!!”

“I know! Oh my word, you remember that night at the academy when this played at the...”

“...freshman science ball, yes! Oh how could I forget!” Jemma squealed with laughter and started to sing along and swayed in her seat, her pony-tail bopping along with her, “We get on almost every night, when that moon is big and bright, it’s a supernatural delight, every body is dancing in the moonlight...come on Fitz!”

“Hey, I can’t dance and drive at the same time! I’m still reeling from the first time when you dragged me onto that dance-floor even though you know I have two left feet.” 

“Do not pretend like that wasn’t the best night of first year!”

“I’m surprised you can remember after all those tequila shots you light-weight. Singing at the top of your voice with you shoes in your hands saying how you wanted me to invent a device that would shine moonlight into your room on request like some sort of disco ball with a...what was it...a chocolate ice-cream maker built in?”

“Everyone loves ice-cream, especially chocolate,” Simmons giggled to herself. “All the older students were staring at me, at least I was too drunk to notice then, it makes me extremely embarrassed now.” 

“Ah, they were staring at you because you looked so beautiful,” Fitz smiled and Simmons blushed. “But you did look stunning that night, well, you...always do...really.” She smiled at that and nudged him. “Jemma...I’ve been...”

Their walkie-talkie buzzed.

“Oh, it’s Coulson,” Simmons said. “Hello sir?” 

“Simmons, how are you getting on? Any news on the plane?”

“Nothing yet, sir, but we’re on our way to the airport.”

“Good, keep us updated, is that...music?”

“Are they having a party without us?” Tripp’s voice came and Skye started to laugh.

“All right Fitzsimmons!” she said.

“Just a bit of the radio to pass our time,” Simmons replied. “We’ll let you let you know when we get there.”

“Copy that,” Coulson replied and Simmons put the walkie-talkie down. 

“It’s nice to have some fun sometimes,” Simmons said and Fitz just smiled, looking back at the road. “To think about the old times.”

“Simmons promise me that things won’t change,” 

“Fitz, you know I can’t,” she told him and he sighed. “We’ve just got to surround ourselves with people we know we can rely on. Like the rest of our team. And you’re doing well with the change, look at how you and Tripp were earlier. You’re getting to be friends!”

“Well, I suppose he can’t be that bad if his grandfather is a howling commando. But to think that he didn’t know about Garrett...”

“Of course he didn’t know. He’s a good man, and honestly, the way you’ve been going on it’s like your jealous or something.”

“Well, maybe I am!” Fitz retorted.

“But you’re just as much the agent as he is.” she sighed. “This next right here.” Fitz turned the wheel and they pulled off to a side road.

“It’s not about that though, it’s about us, you and me,” Fitz said but Simmons was looking at the maps.

“We’re close...”

“Yes, yes that’s what I’ve been trying to say, we are close!”

“To the airport! Of course we are close, we’re best friends,” Simmons smiled.

“Yes, but I mean...”

“The bus! It’s over there! Fitz we found it! We found it!” Simmons shrieked loudly and Fitz looked over into the distance seeing their plane, bold and black in a space of green against blue sky - quite near in the clearing surrounded by trees . He smiled to himself - his revelation could wait, after all, they had plenty of time to talk. 

“Well don’t make a song and dance about it, you’ll wake the Red Skull, let alone alert the rest of HYDRA. We need to find a place to stop.”

“How about here?” Simmons pointed to a series of wooden buildings likely to be part of an old hangar. It was a small airport so no one would see them, they hoped.

Fitz parked the car by the side of the road hidden near some trees, and he and Simmons got out checking around, before walking towards the smallest wooden building.

“We’ve never done a mission by ourselves before. Just us, we will be okay, won’t we?” Simmons looked up at Fitz who looked back into her brown eyes. Even though he didn’t know the answer himself, he would answer her truthfully. 

“I promise I won’t let anything happen to you, Jemma,” he smiled slightly and gave her a small one armed side-hug before they entered the building. “We should be safe hiding here. Are they leaving? They can’t be...do they know...?” 

“I’ll radio the team,” Simmons said as Fitz looked through the binoculars. “Sir? We found the bus. It’s on an airfield outside Abel Santamaria packing up to leave.”

“We’re on our way. How far is that from our location?” he asked.

“About three hours, but by the looks of it they’ll be long gone by the time you can get here sir,” Simmons told him.

“Get out of there right now. Do not engage, wait for us back at the jump jet.” Coulson insisted and Simmons sighed - were they just meant to let them leave? Now wasn’t the time to shirk from their responsibilities as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

“Copy that sir.”

Fitz looked at her. 

“You don’t want to go do you?”

“I know we’re not supposed to engage, but if they get away we’ll be back to square one. I can’t handle square one again,” she told him honestly.

Fitz took the binoculars away from his eyes. 

“Garrett’s there which means Ward’s probably there too,” he told her. 

“What if we send a dwarf into the plane from here? It can stow away inside so we can track where the bus is going?”

“Yes! Simmons, excellent suggestion.” Fitz pointed her. “We can send sleepy. He’s our best listener - next to you of course.” She smiled at that.

“Okay.”

“I’ll go get him from the car,” Fitz turned around and walked towards the door.

A shadow appeared before the figure of Ward. Fitz’s heart froze and Simmons too looked over and gasped slightly. Fitz backed away towards her. Ward walked forward. 

“Long time no see,” were his words to them. The two looked at each other - there was no where to run. They were doomed...


End file.
